


understanding

by Purple64



Series: A year in the life [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Attempted Kidnapping, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Gen, Jason Todd Gets A Hug, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Mild Language, Minor Violence, No Incest, Skateboarding, Tim Drake Gets a Hug, Tim Drake Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple64/pseuds/Purple64
Summary: Jason and Tim have fun at the park and strengthen their bond, by beating up some bad guys.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Series: A year in the life [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088438
Comments: 12
Kudos: 168





	understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Not really edited forgive my mistakes.  
> 
> 
> I hope you know I never write what I think I’m going to write in this series. It might be due to my music playlist being a mix of kpop, disco, and Motown today.

Jason was pretty sure he had this mentor slash big brother (in spirit) thing down. It’s been a few months since Tim was thrust into Jason’s life, and the kid somehow fit perfectly. Tim understands him in ways his family never will, even though they do try their best.

It’s just that Bruce doesn’t know how it feels to grow up with parents who don’t want anything to do with you. Even if he’s part of the Wayne family now, he can’t help but panic at the thought that one day Bruce will toss him aside. That’s why he connected with Tim so fast, seeing first hand how the Drake’s treated their son.

He feels sorry for Tim.

The kid let him know that his parents started going on extended trips again now that they settled in their new home. It angers him that he can’t do anything about his home life, seeing as they make sure to have hired help when they leave. They make sure to cover any bases to avoid getting a call from social services. They have live in nanny and security guards that roam the property. Tim was as safe as he can be, so they figured nothing was really stopping them from traveling.

Jason is just happy they let Tim stay at the same school instead of transferring him back to his old boarding school.

Tim was kind of down in the dumps this whole week because of his parents leaving so Jason decided that instead of their usual Friday afternoon study session, they could go to the skate park. This gave Jason a chance to see Tim’s skills on his board and lift the kid’s spirit. He got special permission from Jo to do his mentor session off campus (they saw how sad Tim was and was happy to help cheer Tim up).

Tim is excited, and even brought a change of clothes to school so they can head there straight away. He proudly sports a Robin graphic tee shirt and makes fun of Jason’s choice of clothes. Jason has no shame of his collection of tee shirts that made book puns. His choice of the day said, ‘my weekend is all booked’.

Tim insisted this was why he was such a nerd and that he needed to keep a distance at the skate park so his reputation wasn’t ruined. Jason can’t believe he could strike fear in most gangs in Gotham but a sixth grader was embarrassed to be with him in public.

Dick offered to pick them up from school and drop them off so they waited at the steps for the older man. Jason is trying to convince Tim to come over to stay for the weekend when Dick finally shows up. He blasting his awful disco playlist and Jason almost refuses to enter the car out of principle. Tim has to drag him in, not wanting to waste any more skate time.

Wow, the kid must really love skating. Jason is definitely going to make an effort to take him out there more often then.

Jason refuses to listen to Dick’s music the rest of the way there and tries to connect his phone to car’s Bluetooth. Dick refuses to let him and rejects any song requests. He instead chooses to blast ABBA the whole way there just to spite him.

Tim seems to be content with Dick’s choice of music, that or he’s too excited at the prospect of skating to care what they listened to on the way there. Dick does tense up for a bit as they get close to the skate park, and keeps watching the rearview mirror. The car behind follows for a bit but, eventually turns in a different direction.

Dick circles around a couple blocks before heading to the skate park just to be sure.

Once he deems it safe he drops them off. Dick promises to pick them up later, and to just text him when they’re ready to go home. He already had plans with a friend this afternoon (Jason bets he’s going to go bother Barbara) and promises to hang out with them another time.

Tim is eager to skate but holds himself back to help Jason get familiar with his spare board. Jason prefers rollerblades, but he thought it would be fun for Tim to be the mentor for once.

Tim shows him how to balance on the board and push himself forward. Jason’s surprised how hard it is to just to keep up right without moving. He’s able to roll down the ramp without falling after his fifth attempt.

Jason knows Tim’s phone is full of his failed attempts and he needs to remember to delete the evidence later.

He finally decides to settle down on the edge of the ramp and let Tim be free. Tim doesn’t even blink once Jason gives him the go ahead. The kid practically launches himself off the edge of the ramp to go skate.

He finds himself grinning, it’s amazing to watch the eleven year old pull off skating tricks he only knew because of playing the Tonk Hawk games. It was cool to see Tim in his element. The kid had a look of pure joy any time he made a flip in the air.

Jason understood the feeling; he got like that anytime he jumped off a building. He always took a moment to appreciate the weightlessness. Like he was flying in the air instead of getting pulled by his grapple gun. Too bad he couldn’t take Tim out at night, he was sure the kid would love going across buildings that way.

Jason checked his phone and saw that it was getting later in the afternoon and sent a text to Dick to come pick them up. They’ve been at the park for a few hours now and most of the younger kids headed home already. A few college age students were still around and Jason knew better than to take a chance in Gotham after sun down.

He planned on getting Dick to help him convince Tim to eat dinner with them at least. He knows it would beat eating dinner alone in an empty table since apparently the Drake’s don’t allow “the help” as they refer to Tim’s caretakers, to eat dinner in dining room.

Jason is about to call Tim to wrap it up when he sees something that makes his heart clench. Tim landed on the opposite side of ramp and was about to go down when a man grabs him from behind, covering his mouth. As Tim begins to struggle in his hold, the other two “skaters” hanging by Tim join the man. They have duct-tape and begin to wrap it around Tim’s legs.

Oh hell no. Jason is about to press the emergency beacon on his phone and gear up for action when he feels a gun press into his back.

“I would stay put if I were you,” says a gruff voice and Jason holds back a curse. “I was planning on taking the Drake heir but, a Wayne brat will bring at least ten times more. The Drake kid is just a bonus now. Now turn around, slowly, and hand me your phone.”

Jason reluctantly follows the order, and gives the man his phone. The man has an ugly goatee like some movie villain, and Jason can’t believe his about to be kidnapped by this guy.

Dick will never let him live this down.

Jason should have been paying more attention to his surroundings. He was so focused on cheering up Tim, he let his guard down completely. It should have been obvious. Goatee man and his lackeys must have been in that car from earlier. They probably guessed this where they were headed.

This was the perfect time to grab them, the skate park was cleared out so no witnesses. At least Dick was on his way and would know something was wrong when they weren’t here. That would be at least thirty minutes though, and Jason was scared they didn’t have that time to spare.

“Ow, you little shit!”

Jason turns around to see Tim biting into the hands of one kidnappers trying to put duct-tape on his mouth. When he punches Tim in retaliation, Jason sees red. He doesn’t care about the gun pointed towards him, he just knows that man is going to pay.

He doesn’t get far before he feels a prick in his neck but yanks the needle out before the man can press down the plunger.

That bastard _did not_ just try to drug him.

Goatee man face is shocked at Jason’s quick reaction and is too late to respond when Jason injects the drugs into him instead. The man is down for the count and Jason quickly heads over to where Tim is.

He meets Tim’s eyes and sees the boy face full of fear. He just gives him a grin so he knows it’s okay. He grabs the skateboard Tim let him borrow and launches it the man who punched Tim. It hits him right in the middle of his forehead and Jason hopes he gets a concussion.

Tim must be feeling brave from Jason fighting back because he decides to bite the arm of the man who is still holding him up. The man yells in pain and drops Tim, the boy rolls over and kicks out his duct-taped legs. He makes contact with the would-be-kidnapper and the man falls down to the bottom of the ramp. The man hits his head and doesn’t get up.

That leaves one more of Goatee man’s lackeys to deal with. The man decides it’s not worth it and runs away. Jason is already running to Tim’s side and about to help him rip off the duct-tape when Tim pulls a _knife_ out his sock.

He then proceeds to cut through the duct-tape on his legs and gets up. He calls the police telling them about the attempted kidnapping. He then calls his nanny so she can let his parents know the press will be calling soon.

She doesn’t seem too concerned when he tells her that he was almost kidnapped, at least she offered to pick him up. Tim just tells her that he already has a ride home and he starts taking pictures of the men they took down.

After he’s done on the phone, he looks at Jason like this was a normal time at the park.

“What the fuck! First off…why do you have that in your sock?” Jason yells, frozen in shock at how casually Tim is acting.

Tim just gives him a confused look, “I told you I walk around Gotham taking pictures right? You know you can’t be around certain parts without some sort of protection. Just be glad it’s not like a gun or something.”

This kid was going to give him a heart attack.

“You better not think about getting a gun either!” Jason is aware that he’s starting to throw his hands in the air as he talks but, he can’t help it. Tim is acting like this whole situation isn’t unusual.

“Are you crazy Jason, why would I get a gun? I just have this as a last resort, I mean how would I even sneak a gun around all the time?”

“Wait, did you have that on you during school?”

“Geez Jason, why are freaking out so much? And yes, I do. I made it in my 3D printer so it gets past the metal detectors.” Tim seems very proud of the fact. Like it’s normal that a preteen would feel the need sneak a weapon around. “It’s just for emergencies, this is the first time I actually had to pull it out. And it works great!”

Tim looks very proud of his weapon making skills. Jason usually would be happy that Tim is in good spirits but, his emotions are swirling around too much for him to feel anything but panic.

Jason needs an adult. This way past what he signed up for, Tim is going to give him grey hairs.

By the time Dick pulls up, the cops already arrived and were getting the kidnappers into custody. He rushes over to where Jason and Tim are getting questioned by a detective, and Jason is glad to be able to finally relax. He knows now that Dick will handle the rest, and steps aside to let himself breathe.

He glances back to where Dick is and panics for a second when he doesn’t see Tim. He looks around and doesn’t see him where the other cops are, and is about to start yelling out for the boy when he feels a small tap on his shoulder.

“Hey,” Tim says gently to him, “are you okay? You keep freaking out on me.”

Jason reaches out and hugs Tim for a brief moment before he lets him go. “Yeah, sorry, I just don’t know how you are taking this so well. I mean we almost got kidnapped, and you got hit in the face again too.”

Jason can see it will be a shiner and fears that this might be a regular thing for the boy. It seems like he only gets hit in the face around Jason though.

“Well, my parents kind of trained me for this situation, since it’s their company’s policy not to pay ransoms. So they made sure I knew how to escape before that would even be an option.”

Okay, Jason was tempted to punch the Drakes next time they met face to face. They were rich and they already drilled it in their son’s head that he was less valuable then a sum of money.

“Tim, I’m glad you are trained with some self-defense but please don’t try to fight off anyone if you’re on your own okay? I don’t care what your parents say, if it ever comes to it, I will pay what ever amount to get you home safe. Anyone in my family would. Got it?” Jason gripped his shoulder and tried to give him a look of reassurance.

“He’s right Timmy,” Dick comes from behind and gathers them both for a hug. “You are Wayne in all but name and we take care of our own.”

Jason swears Tim’s eyes get a bit misty at that. “The cops said we are free to go and will call Bruce and your nanny if they need any more information from you. Let’s get out of here before the press gets a hold of the story.”

Jason puts an arm around Tim’s shoulder and follows Dick to his car. He has no trouble convincing Tim to stay over for the night and wonders if he’s more shaken than he thought.

Alfred and Bruce fuss over them as soon as they get home. Tim doesn’t seem to know how to react to all the attention but he takes it in stride. Compared to the chaos of the afternoon, the evening went as normal as can be. They ate dinner and decided to watch a movie in the entertainment room.

Bruce pulled Jason aside while Tim changed into some spare pajamas and letting him know he could skip patrol for the night.

He figured Jason already pulled enough heroics for the day. Jason agreed it would be best, he wouldn’t be able to concentrate that much anyway. Tim getting grabbed and punched earlier still playing on repeat in his head. He couldn’t sleep, even with knowing Tim was perfectly safe in the room next to him, his mind wouldn’t calm down.

He was pulled from his thoughts by a light knocking sound and he got up to answer it. Tim wouldn’t meet his eyes as he shyly asked if he could sleep in the room with him. Jason just opened his door wider and Tim took the hint, carrying a blanket and pillow from the guest room.

The kid stupidly tried to sleep on the floor, and Jason rolled his eyes. He lifted Tim up, ignoring his yells, and threw him on the bed. He shoved Tim aside so he had room to cover the both with his blankets.

They sat in silent for a few moments before Tim let out a small thank you. Jason just grunted in reply and finally found himself relaxing. Once he heard Tim’s soft snores, he found himself drifting off, and hoped to God Dick didn’t find them like this in the morning.

(Dick did but instead of taking pictures of them snuggled up together, he jumped on top of them instead. Yells and curses quickly followed.)

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!  
>    
> 
> 
>   
> Does anyone have any manga recs that are slice-of-life or found family? I’m currently reading spy x family and need a new series. Book recs are good too!


End file.
